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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add... (More)

About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in addition to writing editorials for more than 15 years. I have served as a director of many non-profits in the Valley and the broader Bay Area and currently serve as chair of Teen Esteem and on the advisory board of Shepherd?s Gate. I also served as founding chair of Heart for Africa and have travelled to Africa seven times to serve on mission trips. My wife, Betty Gail, has taught at Amador Valley High (from where we both graduated) since 1981. She and I both graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, as did both of my parents and my three siblings. Given that Cal tradition, our daughter went south to the University of Southern California and graduated with a degree in international relations. Since graduation, she has taken three mission trips and will be serving in the Philippines for nine months starting in September. (Hide)

Dublin agencies find creative partnership for new school site

Uploaded: May 17, 2018

The Dublin City Council has partnered with the Dublin school district to start to address school overcrowding on the eastside of the city.
Rapidly changing demographics and poor planning have plagued both agencies as builders have completed homes and apartments that have been long planned. The district has struggled to find additional sites to construct more schools because households are significantly larger than what was expected.
It’s notable that the Dublin school population is expected to grow by 5,000 students by 2022 to a total of 15,400 when the city population will be an estimated 62,500. By contrast, Pleasanton and Livermore, with populations of 71,000 and 89,000, respectively, have enrollments of 14,700 and 14,000, respectively. It shows just how many families with children are moving into the new homes in Dublin.
Naturally, the school crowding has sparked discontent in the community and both the district and the city have responded.
Earlier this month, the agencies announced that the city is providing the school district with a 12-acre site in the Dublin Crossing project on former Camp Parks land on Dublin Boulevard near the east Dublin BART station. The land originally was planned for a park.
The agreement is for an initial five-year lease that can be extended for another five years at $1/year. The district can eventually acquire the land for $111—it is valued at $36 million. The district will apply for state funds to pay for the site—if it is successful, the state money will go to the city.
There will be a joint use with a potential gym on site as well as the public using the facilities as a park. Joint use agreements are ideal uses of public property. One early move by the city of San Ramon after it incorporated was taking over maintenance on school sites, so the public could access them.
This is the second time the city has shifted a park site to the school district. In 2015, the entities signed a land lease that allowed the district to build Cottonwood Creek School, which is scheduled to open this fall in the Jordan Ranch development.
The school district also is moving ahead with negotiations to buy a larger site in the stalled Promenade development across from the Sorento neighborhood at Central Parkway and Brannigan. Developer Jim Tong had asked the City Council to rezone the land from its planned commercial and retail uses but was denied. If negotiations on a price fail (it could be $1 million per acre), then the district can take the land via eminent domain.
Speaking of the new agreement and the potential high school site in the Promenade, Mayor David Haubert said, “We support the district. We are all ears for ideas to help, but we cannot make decisions for the district.”
The acreage the district can afford at the 23-acre Promenade site is not large enough for a full comprehensive high school, but there are alternatives to share fields in the nearby Fallon Sports Park. It could hold a school of about 1,500 students. A high school of that size that will alleviate the traffic congestion trying to reach Dublin High School on Dublin Boulevard.
It’s unfair to criticize the district for missing on the changing demographics of the new community. East Dublin was planned at the same time that Contra Costa County, the city of San Ramon and the San Ramon Valley school district were working on the Dougherty Valley for what once were Gale Ranch and Gumpert Ranch (both named for former judges).
The same demographic shift has been seen in the Dougherty Valley where school sites have been added as the local schools grew overcrowded. The San Ramon Valley district has the advantage of dealing with just one developer (Shapell Homes originally, now Toll Brothers) and the developer’s incentive to continue to sell homes encouraged flexibility on more school sites.
In contrast to the San Ramon Valley, where Dougherty Valley High School was included in the plan (with a joint-use theater), Dublin school trustees decided years ago to make Dublin High the only high school in town. It’s that decision that the current district leaders are struggling to overcome.

Posted by Unhappy Parent,
a resident of Dublin,
on May 20, 2018 at 1:47 pm

For too long Dublin school board members were in denial of over-crowding. I attended some meetings and the data they presented were obviously skewed and wrong. We pointed out the facts of misleading data, but the board members ignored all the parents who raised the concern. One such meeting was held about 4 years ago in at Fallon gym. Concerned parents showed up for the over-crowding discussion, but the school board members took the easy route by not answering the majority of our questions. The copped out response was "we will look into it", but never really did.

Then the school board issued some bonds, misleading marketing fooled the parents thinking the bond would be used for a new high school, once passed, the money was used for general funds with no amount allocated to a new high school. Yet, it was sold as bond for high school. BAIT and SWITCH. Now, all Dublin home owners are paying an average of about $1000 extra per year on their property tax to fund the bond!

We need some real school board members to be elected to be honest and address the issue.